The most pressing environmental issue of our time is global warming.  The burning and utilization of fossil fuels for transportation, eletricity, manufacture, agriculture and other uses has pumped an estimated 700 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere of earth.

These gasses become part of the layer of ‘greenhouse gasses’ that surround the earth, trapping some of the heat that would otherwise escape into space, warming the earth little by little over time.  But this rate of warming has been increasing perceptibly over recent years.

We are already witnessing some of the results of global warming around the world, including melting ice caps, rising sea levels, dislocation and loss of species, the ‘bleaching’ of coral reefs, wetter more violent storms, and dryer more long-lasting droughts.

Here are some links to longer, more authoritative explanations of the causes and effects of global warming.

• Global Warming Basics by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, a public interest ‘think-tank’
• Global Warming Basics from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) public interest lawyers for the environment and endangered species and ecosystems.
• Pace of Global Warming Causes Alarm - article from Associated Press on website of Common Dreams.
• Global Warming - from the National Environmental Trust (NET)